Story+1984-11-25+Dallas,+TX

´´They closed up the plant, it was about, I guess, was about five years ago...took about 2,000 of us out on the street looking for a job....and uh....I went looking for about six months....and we run out of our savings...and I went down to the bank that was about to foreclose on the mortgage of the house....and uh....he tried to tell me that he knew how I felt....I said ´Well, you walk around that desk and you sit in this chair and you walk in those shoes for a while ....”
 * 25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Johnny 99´**

´´This is a song about blind faith....and uh, its tragic results....´cause everybody´s waited for somebody or something that wasn´t never ever coming back....”
 * 25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Reason to Believe´**

´´Thank you, this is....this is about, uh.....about, it´s a song about isolation....which, uh..... seems how (?)....all the new technology is meant to bring people closer....it also seems to make things, make things less real for some reason.....people end up losing the connection that they got with, sometimes with their families or their friends or their jobs or the government....and then uh (?)....”
 * 25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Nebraska´**

´´Thank you....this is uh....I guess there´s all sorts of isolation....I remember I was living....I was home in New Jersey when a friend of mine (cheers)....it´s nothing to get excited about (chuckles)....I remember I was home when a friend of mine called me and told me....that, uh, Elvis Presley died....and I remember thinking how it was, it was hard to understand that somebody, somebody who taken away so many people´s loneliness and given so many people....I guess, what felt like a place somewhere in the world, could end up....so lonely, with no place of his own so....a dream, uh.....your best dreams can kill you....”
 * 25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Johnny Bye Bye´**

´´Now, this is a song....this is a song about ancient history....now, I´m not talking about the Mesopotamians ....or the Trojans or, uh....or the Italians....talking about personal stuff.... the kind of stuff that, when I die, you´re gonna read in the National Enquirer....or if I have a fight with my girlfriend, you´re gonna read it while I´m still alive....in one of them tell-all books, you know, that they always write....all the sordid details....but I´m gonna beat ´em to the punch ´cause I´m gonna confess right now....now, when I was a kid....there was three things I was interested in....my father was a real good poolplayer so I kept practising to try and beat him someday....I was interested in that....I was interested in the guitar....and then the third thing was....you know, you know, that one, that one....but anyway one Christmas, my mother took me down to Sears and she bought a pooltable for 69.95 and we tied it to the roof of the car and like you know I was holding on to it and we were driving home and we didn´t have no place downstairs to put it so I put it up in my bedroom.....so like I used to bring my girlfriends over and I´d tell my father, I´d say: ´Dad, we´re gonna go up in my room and play pool for a little while´....and ....but he used to like, he used to sit in the kitchen which was right underneath my bedroom so if he didn´t hear the poolballs knocking around, if he didn´t hear the guitar playing, he had this broomstick that he used to bang on the ceiling ....so, but I kind had it all figured out like, like I had the bed set up and then I´d pull the pooltable like real over close to the bed so like every once in a while I would just like kind of lean up and knock the balls around little bit....anyway....I matured, you know, and.....went on to other things and gave up pool ....and of the other two, I guess the guitar is the only one I really became proficient at....but the third thing....I´m still looking for some volunteers who wanna practise.....you gotta practise, practise, practise all the time....it never gets boring, I can´t figure it out (chuckles)....but anyway....in the end we all grow up, I think (chuckles) ....all things must pass and it ain´t nothing but, but glory days....”
 * 25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Glory Days´**

´´Thank you, thanks....this is a song, I guess I wrote about three, three years ago....I was kind of living away from home and uh, I was thinking about the town I grew up in....and uh, I guess everybody that grows up kind of has a love-hate-relationship with the place that they were born...I guess there´s a lot of good things and a lot of bad things that happen to you there (chuckles)....but, uh, I know when I, when I got older and I moved away for a while, was on the road a lot and....for a long time I guess I felt like I was afraid of belonging to something and belonging somewhere....so this song, it´s kind of a song about responsobility to the place that you live....and uh, tonight when you go out into the lobby, you´re gonna see some folks that are trying to live up to that responsobility, they´re from the North Dallas Foodbank....and, uh, the North Texas Foodbank, excuse me....and uh, what they do is they feed people, right now in the United States every year 20, 20 percent of the food that gets produced gets wasted, gets thrown away and we got people that ain´t getting enough to eat, that are hungry, that been hit by hard times or unemployment or they´re old and they need a hand or they´re young and they need a hand....and I know, uh, I know that down here in Texas you got a real independent spirit (chuckles) but uh....I assume that, I guess what comes along with that is a, is a generous spirit too so they can....there´s people out there that are hurting, they can use your hand so when you go out there, check out the North Texas Foodbank.....they´re trying to make the place that you live a more decent and a better place to live....and after all this....this is your hometown.....”
 * 25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´My Hometown´**

´´Alright now, take it easy there, boys....now, this is a song.....about the conflict .....between worldly things and spiritual health....between desires of the flesh....and spiritual ecstasy .... now, where did this conflict begin ?.....well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden....well, now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in southern Babylonia....but the latest theological studies have found that its actual location was ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike.....that´s why they call it the Garden State....now, understand....in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living....I mean you didn´t have no little houses and beds and a little pillow you could tuck your head into at night, you didn´t have no Pop-Tarts that you could put in your toaster and then go watch Johnny Carson in front of the TV.....you couldn’t go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one....they didn´t have no designer jeans and none of that stuff....no, in the Garden of Eden, in the Garden of Eden, there was no sin....there was no sex.....man lived in a state of innocence ....now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I constantly live in ....but just before the tour I decided to make a spiritual journey trying to find myself, make a spiritual journey to the location of the Garden of Eden....well, I hitchhiked out there and I found out that that location was now occupied by Happy Dan´s Celebrity Used Car Lot....I walked in, the man said to me ´Son, you need a yellow convertible , a four-door DeVille with a Continental spare, wide chrome wheels, air-conditioning, automatic heat, fold-out bed in your backseat, eight-track tapedeck , TV and a phone so you can speak to your baby when you’re driving all alone’...I said ‘I’ll take two’....I said ´But Dan, that´s not, that´s not the reason I came, I wanna know where, where, where did all this temptation begin, where did this conflict begin, why my body pulls me one way, my soul pulls me the other´ and he said ´Well, son, that´s easy ....because right here on these ten beautiful industrially-zoned acres was the sweetest little paradise that man has ever seen, now, in the Garden of Eden there were many wonderous things : there was a Tree of Life, there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there was a man, Adam, there was a woman, Eve and she looked fine ....and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman ....and she had these long, thin legs....and when Adam touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman, son.....then they lay down in the green grass.....and when Adam.... well, it was the first time....but there was something else in that Garden of Eden, old Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their love into a betrayal and sent them running down into the darkness....but right here tonight on this backlot, for 99.95 and no money down, if you´ve got the nerve to ride, I´ve got their getaway car...if you think you can handle it, son, I´ve got the keys....to the first....pink....Cadillac...´´
 * 25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Pink Cadillac´**

´´Well, when....when we first started going out, like we were laughing all the time and having fun all the time, she always liked to go out riding....you know how you get, you get all caught up in each other....and after a while it seemed the things that made her happy once just didn´t make her happy anymore....and I was spending a lot of my time.....trying to find something ....that was gonna make her happy again....and she got to where she started hiding my keys when it´d get late ´cause she didn´t like me going out at night....and it got hard to make her understand....that when I took the car out and when I won....that it was the only time, the only time ever that I felt good about myself....and that to have just one thing....one thing in your whole life....that you do that makes you feel proud of yourself....I don´t think that´s too much for anybody to ask....is it ? (....) Well, that was....that was the night that we left....we still don´t know where we´re gonna go yet....but I guess that´ll come in time....but right now, sometimes it seems like....seems like time´s getting so short....seems like it´s running so short on you....but you just gotta.... you just gotta keep going....keep searching....keep going....”
 * 25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Racing in the Street´**

´´Thank you, I´d like to, like to just take a second and thank you for coming down to the show tonight, we appreciate it....wanna thank you guys that, uh....I know were waiting a little awhile in line for those tickets and I want you to know that (chuckles) we know you´re out there (chuckles)....and uh, I´d like to thank you for your support of, of the North, North Texas Foodbank....there´s people out there that´re, are still hurting and they need some help ....and the idea when this whole thing, I think, began was that we´re all some kind of family and so remember nobody wins unless everybody wins.....”
 * 25.11.84 Dallas, TX, intro to ´Born to Run´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//